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Immediate Release

Readout of Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan’s Meeting With United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Defence Penelope Mordaunt

Department of Defense Spokesperson LTC Dave Eastburn provided the following readout:

Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan met yesterday with the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Defence Penelope Mordaunt on the sidelines of the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ 18th Asia Security Summit, also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, a major annual defense and security forum in the Indo-Pacific region. 

The two leaders reaffirmed their mutual commitment to the special U.S.-U.K. alliance and discussed opportunities to strengthen defense engagement in the Indo-Pacific.  Acting Secretary Shanahan thanked Minister Mordaunt for the United Kingdom's staunch support for the free and open Indo-Pacific and global United States presence operations.  

Secretary Mordaunt and Acting Secretary Shanahan discussed the breadth of existing cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom on Maritime Security, and noted the need to sustain this cooperation and coordinate our respective efforts to tackle maritime security threats in the Asia-Pacific region.  The two leaders agreed to meet again at the NATO Defense Ministerial next month, with a particular focus on alliance readiness.